THE MAIL BREAKING GANGS John Seabrook, in writing about C.I.R.V., the Cincinnati program aimed at reducing gang violence, illustrates how David Ken- nedy, the program's founder, has truly "shifted the paradigm" of law enforcement ("Don't Shoot," June 22nd). Under con- ventional strategy, the police function as a higher-order gang, moving in on some- one elsè s territory and enforcing their will with violence, just as the lower-order street gangs do. Kennedýs approach allows the police to function as something much more constructive: an über-parent. Under the new program, the police force sets bound- aries and offers the chance for rewards, just like parents in a functional family. Jamie Gordon Denver, Colo. Cincinnati's criminal-justice system is swamped by low-level, nonviolent misdemeanors, which makes it difficult to implement proven risk-needs assess- ments on those high-risk offenders that C.I.R.V. targets, and to focus on evidence-based interventions. Instead, we are left with C.I.R. V.' s lack of inde- pendent empirical support, its tendency to lean ever more heavily on the stick at the expense of the carrot, and its slide into yet another iteration of failed "scared straight" interventions. Janet Moore Ohio Justice &amp; Policy Center Cincinnati, Ohio BEFORE STONEWALL Hendrik Hertzberg writes that the gay civil-rights movement "got its start at a most improbable hour in a most im- probable place" (The Talk of the Town, July 6th &amp; 13th). He is right that Stone- wall was a major turning point, but the struggle for gay rights truly began in a Los Angeles living room in 1950, where five men (among them the fashion de- signer Rudi Gernreich, who later created the topless bathing suit) founded the Mattachine Society, an organization ded- icated to ending discrimination against gays. In the years before the Stonewall uprising, the gay civil-rights effort grew by fits and starts, but there were key court victories, confrontations with the police (most notably, in San Francisco in 1965), public demonstrations, and even national conventions of gay-rights groups. And, in the immediate aftermath of Stonewall, it was the local chapters of the Matta- chine Society and the Daughters ofBili- tis (an organization for lesbians, founded in San Francisco in 1955) that organized the first protest marches. Eric Marcus New York City REGULATING CAUTION James Surowiecki is correct in pointing out that the Obama Administration's pro- posed Consumer Financial Protection Agency, though well intended, is likely to have a number of unintended conse- quences, such as stifling financial innova- tion, as well as a "lulling effect" on con- sumers' natural wariness (The Financial Page, July 6th &amp; 13th). But there's good reason to believe that the proposed C.F.P.A. may actually undermine the consumer protections it's intended to in- sure. For example, creating a new agency risks monopolizing the approach to con- sumer protection-one agency, one staff: one blunt institutional outlook and ap- proach. The new agency would also di- vorce the regulation of financial products from the regulation of the institutions that develop and market those products. And a new agency might give the other func- tional regulators an easy excuse: "Con- sumerprotection's not my job." Consumer protection should be embedded in the DNA of each financial regulator, not iso- lated within the walls of a single agency. John R. Dearie Executive Vice-President The Financial Services Forum Washington, D. C. . Letters should be sent with the writers name address and daytime phone number via e-mail to themail@newyorker.com. Letters may be edited for length and clarity and may be pub- lished in any medium. All letters become the property of The New Yorker and will not be returned; we regret that owing to the volume of correspondence we cannot reply to every letter. ADVERTISEM ENT on the town BE THE FIRST TO HEAR ABOUT EVENTS, PROMOTIONS, AND SPECIAL OFFERS FROM NEW YORKER ADVERTISERS. -. .11 i t '-1 , ,:.. . "': ' -"4(,. 'I '\ .' . _ , { \' :" I) - "\ \\ ... '"1 2009 Ultra High Relief Double Eagle Gold Coin An Augustus Saint-Gaudens masterpiece, produced in 24k. gold by the United States Mint exclusively for 2009. See for yourself why this 24k. gold coin is considered by many to be the most beautiful coin in American history, at www.usmint.gov/glory. UNITED STATES MINT THE NEW YOR.KER., JULY 27, 2009 5